Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	discover_v	eternal_a	great_a	83	3	2.1564	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96266	The narrow path of divine truth described from living practice and experience of its three great steps, viz Purgation, illumination & union according to the testimony of the holy scriptures; as also of Thomas a Kempis, the German divinity, Thauler, and such like. Or the sayings of Matthew Weyer reduced into order in three books by J. Spee. Unto which are subjoyned his practical epistles, done above 120 years since in the Dutch, and after the author's death, printed in the German language at Frankfort 1579. And in Latin at Amsterdam 1658. and now in English.	Weyer, Matthias, 1521-1560.; Spee, J.	1683 (1683)	Wing W1525A; ESTC R231717	176,738	498

by fear and anxiety by terrours and by death for they cannot like the common sort of men spend their lives in meer pleasures but he does always detain his under a rigid discipline and many frights and makes them drink down the bitter potion of tribulations that all their internal faculties as well of spirit as of Soul may be brought under the Cross nor can they ever arrive at true peace until every one of them learns nakedly to yield up himself into the will of God and contentedly to take of the potion mixed by God and given him to drink out of meer grace and Love Now that this cup is bitter is no fault of God's but our own and that because we are contrary and enemies to what is good and cannot bear to be purged just like the vulgar people whose troubles are increased by a mixt Physick-wine For by nature a man flieth from all things which are hard and produce pains and yet there is no other way to be recovered nor to come at health then by those means by which we are always more and more adapted to Christ our head by a similitude of his sufferings death and burial that afterwards by a like resurrection also we may be taken into him and be possessed of a never-fading crown of glory For how much we suffer together with Christ so much also shall we reign with ●im not indeed in this time of tempora●y abode but in the truth and perma●ency of spirit and life in which we ●hall arise and be excited to such a like●ess of Christ as consisteth not with de●raved Nature but is lifted up above Nature and is conformed into a spiritu●● eternal and immortal life Thus there●●re all and every one of them in their ●wn order may expect it will be ac●●rding to the measure of the divine gifts ●●at the enemy may for the time to ●●me have no more right nor power ●er our Souls by reason of sin under ●hich hitherto we have been bound ●●d captivated hoping for salvation ●●d redemption in Christ from all our internal enemys who force our Souls into slavery so that in tract of time we may in all holiness and righteousness serve the Lord as present with us all the days of our life He therefore that hath appeared on earth to preach the Gospel to the poor and to the desolate will comfort and cure our sorrowful hearts and graciously set the captives free he I say will in his own time appear gracious to thy humane weakness and will bless thy internal poverty and affliction with a gre●● plenty of the fruits of holiness Now thes● few things I was willing according to th● simplicity of my heart and my mea● gifts in the Lord to write unto thee from an earnest desire to serve thee that 〈◊〉 perhaps some means might be discove●ed to thy heart thorough the divi●● mercy leading to a greater proficienc● in the knowledge of God and th● thy Soul might be sealed up in etern●● peace and reconciliation thorough th● grace of God and by his Spirit A●● 31. 1559. EPIST. V. For what end the Scripture was given and how we ought most exactly to satisfie conscience also concerning the difference between humane righteousness and that which availeth before God To U. of W. MOst dear Lady having this occasion offered I was willing to write a few lines unto thee giving thanks to you all for your friendly inclinations of heart towards us The eternal God grant that that bond in which we being bound together in him and do profess a mutuall union to the true members may become more firm and may grow in Christ our Lord according to his holy will to his glory and our death As to what concerns my condition it is indeed at present such as is tolerable to the flesh as long as it shall please God for the bond of death remains in my heart and in my members and all the rest is known unto the Lord. The Lord himself take us all into his protection that we may be preserved in his fear this dangerous time which as I conjecture cannot be done but by most hard sorrows O would to God we could at length come even unto the death of Christ and feel it in our souls which indeed is set before our eyes in the holy Scriptures yet somewhat shadowed O Lord grant unto us that life which the Scripture every where beareth witness of yet oftentimes by so frequent exercises of so many various readings a man is but kept back and distracted when as yet it 's in the first place necessary that every one should observe himself in the acts of hearing speaking thinking working and in all else where a man is busied about any other matters in things of thi● life and that all these be to his utmost put to the examination of his judgment and that he most exactly endeavours in all hath a care to satisfy his own conscience for so long as the accusatio● thereof endureth by the guilt of an● though the least transgression it 's impossible that peace an be found in h● Soul Because as long as any one does not satisfy his own conscience he is willingly kept a prisoner under sin But the difficulty of this way hindereth many as much as that which the Scripture saith that no man can stand before God in his own proper righteousness which is very true However yet if we are willing to trace thorough this most rocky way of our conscience even to its utmost limit it is necessary that at length we should come to a mortification and destruction of all our laborious endeavours and then will our own righteousness shame us On the contrary we all would dye before ever we have lived and glory that we have renounced our own righteousness when as even yet we stick in the midst of our sins breaking forth into outward acts But the matter is to be otherwise and more accurately considered if we desire to make a proficiency in the Lord for that life which we live in the flesh is dead in the sight of God nor hath no liveliness in it in his account Yea furthermore that life which our Soul enjoys whilst it confideth in and s bottomed on these or these things must also be changed for a death and it 's by no means to be permitted that the enormities thereof should rejoyce in its progress For this life which our Soul hath taken to herself after this manner springs from no where else then from out of that imaginary righteousness and holiness which we fancy is to be found in us and which tickles us with a strange kind of sweet flattery and privately is very pleasing to us yea and gives to our Souls a kind of tranquillity These things are hid so deeply in a man and deceive us with such dissimulation as if all were well with us whence it is that all things are ascribed unto Christ because the man knows that no such

When a man stands between Conscience and Flesh and when conscience ceaseth then the flesh urgeth him and to him it is said Amend thy life or thou must dye but when one stands between life and conscience and transgresseth as to his life presently it is said to him from God Thou must die CHAP. XIV THe Will of God is the death of the Flesh Faith when it is upon trial God then proving it it experienceth the greatest misery There are many waies of coming unto regeneration but the end of all is one and the same yet one ascendeth in some much higher then another doth as when any one cometh into the Sun-shine he hath the Sun yet is one nearer to the Sun than another This is my counsel that a time be set to attain unto God The inward mind is free but the outward humanity without grace is exercised under a severe judgment I have no prop under me whether I respect God or the creatures or heaven or the Earth and I have nothing but that I can lay my self down in the Divine Will being wholly set down under God The Kingdom of Heaven is present but I cannot enjoy it the Sun indeed hath shined but now the falling thereof is come and it shineth no longer I lie down in darkness and in the shaddow of Death nor is there any comfort left to me but in the will of God for I will nothing but only what he willeth Into which state if any one really cometh he is of all men the most miserable I say this that I may express that misery in which I lie To understand these things is pleasant but really to feel them most bitter When the Spirit suffers the flesh ought to suffer with it But when the flesh suffers there is no need for the Spirit to suffer It is never better with me then when I give up my self into death The flesh suffereth its own judgment when the Spirit is in peace but when the Spirit suffers the flesh must suffer also The poor animals must dye for my sake though against my will But because I also give my self up to death I do not refuse the death also of the animals he that giveth not himself up into death cannot take his food with thanksgiving He that is to exercise modesty he ought to be exercised by various afflictions o●herwise he will wander if he shall use it without the experience of the cross If I should stand betwixt two things nor knew which of the two I am to do I would weigh them and would take that which is contrary to my flesh When I do so it is well with me and I call God to witness saying Thou knowest O Lord what I have done But when I do otherwise viz. that which is grateful unto Nature it is always ill with me and I cannot call God to witness Conscience indeed is free but I dare not alleadge that for it is of grace The suffering is hard when no hope is left in the future for the natural man for though the day-break is come yet there is no redemption nor comfort but a man must wait without hope and be quiet in death And though all the joy comfort and refreshment of the whole world were present yet he is bound as it were with cords and can tast of none of them And therefore he never desires that time may run out that a day a week a month a year may come for whatever cometh to pass in them is to him as it were a non-entity because he can rest no where nor use any thing for his delight for he is made bare or naked of all and is put upon the crost Hence is it that both things present and to come are indifferent to him when even then he shall be the same as he is now But those to whom the body of sin is not yet crucified they are touched with the desire of time For they are free and can take up such things as they meet with But this state cannot last long for judgment will come then whatever shall be with him for the furture he cannot take it up and that which is contrary to him he cannot reject for he is impotent whilst he hangeth on the cross nor can he execute his own will CHAP. XV. ALl things are or consist in order order must be kept If one is willing to knit together superiour things that he may loosen inferior things he would break order and wander in errour of which we must beware The Lord saith He that breaks the lest Commandment and shall so teach c. We must seek a free condion in God in which one is free from himself for to be free from ones self is a liberty which is to be attributed to God The grossest and the lowest things are images of things superiour which is to be understood as well of things spiritual as things corporeal for we ascend from the one into the other and from the inferiour to the superiour even as pleasures and the abuse of good things and the building on the sands are images When things are most gross and low then are they the image of things superiour and that which is visible denoteth that that is invisible The Spirit also hath its flesh in which it dwells Also mysteries have their external Histories They who urge mysteries so as to exclude historys disturb order and do err Although Christ the blessed fulfils all things in spirit in his elect which he performed coporally in the days of his flesh yet were they also corporally done in him therefore the historical sense must remain but also it behooveth a man to experience in his own self the mystery likewise The Lord saith Love your Enemies The cross passion adversity Death c. are our enemies which we are to love and embrace The natural man is surrounded with death and which way soever he turns himself he hath a sword presented to his sight just as when one turns on this and on that side should look about him and still some body runs before his face so also is judgment always meeting with the natural man ready to snatch away his life which way soever he turns himself At last he yields up himself when he can no more make his escape But the spirit is in life when the body or nature hangs stretched out upon the Cross Zeal in kindled with divine pleasure is a great pleasure but the Cross and violent plagues follow after it Myrrh was the last gift For it is written They offered Gold Franckincense and Myrrh When I hear the Scripture I am frighted for it denoteth the natural death Nature will have an appropriation therefore communion is a death to it at which it is affrighted CHAP. XVI TO desist from propriety and to help another at our own loss is a thing truly pleasant To find gain in loss and to abstain from that which is best in our esteem and to prefer

most bitter affliction so as his heart becometh as it were ground to powder For he that is not yet come to this poverty but is still rich cannot hold his tongue He that handleth himself severely that he may break his nature and becometh harsh to his own sel● can difficultly compassionate others whom he seeth not to be as severe as he is himself and therefore he so driveth others that they may be like him in state or condition and he is unmerciful nor also can he be silent although sometimes he hath his conscience pressed down with sollicitous care because his heart is not yet pierced quite thorough nor is digged down to its very bottom nor utterly broken with bitter affliction but he that hath h●s heart ground to power and deeply wounded with great and bitter misery he can hold his tongue yea he chooseth rather to be silent although sometimes necessity should require it otherwise then to speak unless God shall compel him thereunto For such a one cannot so readily convert himself towards outward things but what things soever are in such a man are turned to the affliction of his heart and all things are filled with sorrow CHAP. XXXIII I Never found so clear an understanding nor so great experience as in grief sorrow misery affliction and in the death and destruction of the flesh That time which is spent in the cross pain grief misery and streights is gained but that which is spent in pleasure joy delights and plays is lost The mind of a man that is still floating up and down and can still be moved at things pleasant or painful or in joy or in grief doth not yet belong unto God for in God there is no mutation because he is unchangeable Now when the mind of Man cannot be moved by the aforesaid things then is God present in that Soul and it is he who worketh that in the man Those six gifts of the holy Spirit must first be accomplished then at length followeth that seventh gift viz. the spirit of fear of the Lord which puts a man into a sweet calm because this spirit of fear preserveth all the former gifts that they may remain pure and then it is that a man is in all respect struck with a great fear and trembling that he may rightly use them and keep them pure it is this last gift of the fear of God that keeps steady in all things that man that hath received it We are therefore earnestly to endeavour to act rightly in all concerns and to walk before God with holy fear Our conscience is our book into which we ought every day to look and in which to diligently and seriously read and study that we may most exactly perform that which it witnesseth Conscience is a thousand witnesses about which the old and new Testament is our rule of direction CHAP. XXXIV THis year proved more difficult or hard to me then it was ever before in all my life and yet I did most accurately weigh and ponder on that same time For by how much the more sublime any one ascendeth in affliction by so much the more accurately doth he weigh and count his time and it proves thereby more profitable to him All the foregoing time of mine which I had spent before this year vanished away and came to nothing even as this my present time also shall vapour away into nothing because my body is annihilated I have no support hence is it that times becomes so tedious to me but when time is spent in labour it produceth no difficulty But when I am deprived of all my strength I can neither pray nor desire nor lift up one thought to God Yea here I lye and corrupt in body mind and spirit as long as breath remaineth in me Yea as to my understanding also and my reason I am reduced to nothing As for my understanding I know nothing of it whither viz. I have an understanding or not for in this great gulfe of misery all things are reduced to dust and ashes Here I lye and am sensible of nothing but judgment death and condemnation And when one said to him is it so that when thou art accused presently judgment is at hand he answered Am I accused not as though I were so perfect as that I could not be accused but if it were possible for me to take up life in such a moment of time as that accusation might assault me in even in that very moment should I be blown into meer atoms But I have not so much time left me because as many moments of my life as yet remain so many judgments and deaths do I suffer I lye as it were in a thick dark cloud and see nothing oh how very small weak and dim is that poor ray of light that is round about me I cannot see far before me yea neither doth my way and path appear to my sight yea I am lead on where no way is and that which is life to another that is death to me and contrarily that which is anothers death is my life Judgment is so sharp to me as it is when one not thinking any thing layes his hand upon some place and presently some body knocks him on the fingers When any would reply upon him that this case was a certain kind of preservation from God because he laid his hand so faithfully upon thee he still answered True indeed this condition is the most safe before the eyes of God but the most afflicted one in my sight For if I should acknowledge this state to be safe forthwith another judgment is to be undergone by me For plainly I am lead without knowledge without being acquainted or understanding the way For he who hath experienced the thing its self and he that hath been lead in this way only notionally are vastly differing because true knowledge and understanding is such a life such a prop that a man comes then only to know them when God withdraws them from him Just as when one laboureth with great thirst and sees a pot stand before him yet for all that his thirst cannot but afflict him still but then if there should come one who should take the pot quite away then remaineth no hopes of ever attaining to drink thereof All the Elect are brought unto God thorough affliction but all do not tread this same path of the cross by which I am to pass CHAP. XXXV ALl things are transformed and changed whence I observe that ere long many wonderful things will happen and the strange things of God will spring forth I indeed have desired to see them but I shall not arrive at them for I see my end before my eyes yet I rejoyce because of the time to come which now is ready at the door and I rejoyce concerning that time when I look upon children Remember me my mind presageth not as if all I say were Gospel it will be that the glory and the knowledge of

for a better life Wherefore I pray thee be thou intent to the diligent reading of the Scriptures and apply them unt● the amendment of thy life to the mortifying of all unrighteousness and to th● instruction of thy own self until th● Lord shall please to give thee a great●● measure of understanding the fundame●tal meaning of Scripture that thou mayest not be lead up and down by an● man but mayest be taught by him from heaven Now though all men boast of th● that they are endued with the Spirit 〈◊〉 God and are divinely taught by t●● Spirit of Christ yet are they still a●● great distance from what they boast of for else they all should have fought otherwise then as yet they have demonstrated before the door to grace could be set open They think indeed that they are wholy dead and yet feel sin and the accusation of transgressions to be still alive in themselves nor are they nevertheless willing to listen when one tells them of the mortification of such sins and do always defend their state and condition by these or the like reasons notwithstanding the gainsaying of Conscience which they strive to quiet by outward performances or ceremonies concluding that the obedience due to God consisteth in these performances and so pretend to ●ield obedience to God without or out of themselves when within themselves they find nothing but meer disobedience Whenas in truth whosoever he shall ●e no man excepted who makes all is aim at the true marke he is concern●d first to satisfie inward accusations and 〈◊〉 dye to every sin for if we are dead to one sin we shall wholly run into error if the rest be left still alive But say they Christ dyed for these sins and it 's impossible we should be fully perfect Well then if Christ dyed for one sin certainly also he dyed for another whence it will follow that there is no manifest need that we should dye either to this or to that sin let us therefore abide in the old nature of our flesh seeing that Christ dyed for our sins and will make satisfaction for us So is it add they but we are bound to mortif● all sins that we can but to be compleatly made pure we cannot We tal● thus when we cannot get forward any further for men are apt to think that tha● which exceeds their power is also impossible to God But in good truth when a man can go no further an● hath born the sharpest conflict of all an● still something is wanting to him the God worketh in him such things as a● above all humane Understanding an● does thus cleanse him from those sins from which formerly he could not be let go● free but they always did inwardly accus● and blame him Whosoever therefore affirms that he may come into communion with God whilst he still remains under the condemnation of sin that man deceiveth himself for God hath no communion with sin He that would have a Communion with God and Christ to be extended also to himself must be a sanctified Man even as he is holy without all accusation Let not therefore more be ascribed I pray to us then becomes us nor let us boast our selves richer then we are My dearest Neece I write these things to thee least thou shouldst here or there according to these or these ceremonies or external works be deceived if some body should perchance propose such like unto thee Rather first purifie thy self from all unrighteousness which sticketh fast unto thee according to the testimony that thy own Conscience giveth thereof as also the Scripture bearing the same witness and never look without but always within thy self for thy own Sin thy own Idolatry thy own Pride thy own Malice thy own unrighteousness is to be made known unto thee and from them thou must dye then will the Lord freely bestow more upon thee and as thy soul shall come to want some more things it shall abundantly obtain them Herewith I recommend thee to the Lord who is able to lead thee into all Godliness and into the true study of walking in his ways EPIST. IX How one may arrive and come at the best portion which is God himself thorough many tribulations To the same person MAy much grace and salvation fruitfully abound in thee in a true and dayly proficiency in the way of the Lord into which we being in our weakness entred are obliged diligently to go thorough therein that being freed from our weakness and inconstancy we may at last be lead unto the truth of eternal Union with God least that in the multitude and variety of things we be drawn hither and thither and be further sollicited or rested but that we may obtain the best por●ion which is God himself and never more be deprived thereof But before we can come at that all those faculties must first be mortified which hinder God from accomplishing his work in us Now how much any one laboureth in that mortification according to the most inward testimony of his conscience and approveth himself faithful so much fruit also shall spring up from this deadned seed which is to endure much hail and snow and cold and miseries of weather before it can put forth true fruit and such as will prove advantagious to a man Thus also is it with the seed of that ●hin tender knowledge which is sown in us if this is at length to produce such fruit as may be useful to any man for to be a true nourishment inwardly to his soul then indeed is this knowledge to be purified with many temptations assaults difficulties griefs desertions yea all such like hardnesses and least it should remain carnal it is plainly to be slain and mortified Alas what sighs of heart break out before this year of tryal be run thorough in the Wilderness partly because of the ruggedness of the way and partly because of that pinching hunger and thirst of Soul and the want of all divine comforts then flesh and blood look back again to Egypt and repent that they came out from thence In this state we must act cautiously and vigourously call upon the Lod least we be tyred out and the tediousness of the ways roughness quite overcome us For sure it is God will make good his promises to the full leading us from and thorough hardships to a more soft condition thorough disquiets to peace through wants to all plenty and thorough defects to all abundance where all tears are to be wiped away from our eyes nor shall any sorrow be ever able to touchus any more My Neece I therefore write these things because I know that diverse tribulations hand over us under which if we demean our selves with courage we shall certainly be endued with great grace from the Lord Let us therefore rightly observe the perswasions which are dayly set before us from the Lord least we fall back again into the self-same misery Trust not thy flesh for it is manifestly

may my Nephews exercise themselves the most they can in those endeavours that they may learn to repress their youthful and inordinate affections and appetites which will without doubt spring up in them at their own season The Lord seasonably grant to them to own the witness of their conscience against all these that being kept safe from them all they may never consent to any depraved inclination EPIST. XIX That there is a certain especial difference between the exalted rational Zeal and the Zeal that is pure and Christian To the same Person My Dr I Have recommended thy case and purpose to the Lord who can safely keep us all by his Grace and shew to us our errors for though we are for that purpose subjected to sufferings yet nothing is more wholsom for us than a discovery of our spots and defects which is not wont to be done without our indignation and opposition But if the Spirit of Christ must restore and enliven us all then plainly must there be no place left in us for bitterness of spirit against any one For this is alone the Doctrine of Christ Learn of me for I am meek and humble in heart For all hearts that are puffed up are in his time to be brought low even as alas we find it in many The Lord keep us most miserable worms for I never am frighted with greater horror than when behold my self The natural man scratcheth to himself by appropriating to him self all things whatsoever God bestows upon him out of free grace so that all thing also which are in themselves pure by this appropriation become as it were infected with poyson Now if Nature were deadned and the understanding purified then indeed such usages of Gods gifts would not be so multiplied But now that evi● which we call I is so great and our corrupt Nature through its own self-pleasing is so faln and sunk into its own self that we wait not for the time of trials with some difficulties and rest●●int and prayer together with a hope 〈◊〉 the promises of God to be fulfilled in a fit season as it hath been foretold by the Lord. The Lord be mindful of wretched me that write thus and be helpful to thee according to his own and not according to my will I also very earnestly intreat thee that thou take not in bad part this my freedom in writing to thee for my mind never desisteth from having a kindness for thee But high pride of heart and a contemning esteem of our Neighbour as also the doing him injury never is allowed a place in the Christian State but rather that which hath a fair shew of some sort of Zeal that is natural mixed with Mosaical rigour For nothing hath appeared in Christ but meer sufferings and death silence and patience even to the Cross upon which even to the last gasp of his life he signalized his obedience in which he was subjected to his Father withour murmuring also that his Majesty of his eternal Godhead he did not take up again as he might have done but rather bore in himself humanity and imbecility and abiding in hu●●●ty and contempt even to the very death he was crowned with Victory For if the external assaults of his enemies could have moved the internal nature of his eternal birth then indeed that which is immovable could have been moved by some outward violence even as alas it most commonly happneth to us that our whole humanity is shocked inwardly and outwardly when yet we do think it to be the zeal of the Lord. But before we can come to the purity of these motions as it manifested it self in Christ against them who dishonoured God and profaned his Temple certainly there are many things to be eradicated out of our fleshly part if we would be thought to be wholly burning in zeal of spirit But as I hope the Lord will in his time manifest these things to us more clearly for when we are grown old we must carry so no things with great pains which whils● youth flour sheth with a flaming zeal we cannot own and undertake Because all that is talked of death and dying to young persons they cannot in good truth come to them seeing that their bones and marrow are alwaies full of all fleshliness with that fervent vigour together with a full strength of the growing faculty and voluptuous tendency which for the sake of its own power and the glory of self-will is wont to oppose it self to God But then if any one proceed further and draweth forth all his strength even unto the top of all his age then comes decreasing that we are unwillingly lead into the will of God by a manifest other process and then those judgments seem to hang over us which once we decreed to others and that youthful life free and wanton swelling with zeal is now by the just judment of God under the decreasings of old age condemned to death but then at length succeeds understanding and discretion together with continual sufferings in the ways of the Lord even unto our death and the proper sentence pronounced to us for just as all that ought to dye that is possessed of life also is that matter here For God alone if he be truly in us is conjoyned with death but not with our life because no flesh how pure so ever it be can abide in his sight For whatever shined forth externally in Christ even that by a like death must be done inwardly in us if so be we are willing in the resurrection to be incorporated into a communion of his glory Otherwise we stick only but in the flesh of Christ though glorious contemplating alone the life of Christ's humanity not yet glorified but we hinder the growth of that fruit which through the death of Christ in the resurrection by the supernatural birth and a new life is poured forth into us with eternal grace The Lord open my mind to you for here I acknowledge my understanding to be too weak and slender EPIST. XX. An acknowledgment concerning the disputation held at Francfort between John Calvin and Justus Velsius of the power of Man or of free-will To A. G. THe Grace of our Lord and his mercy be upon thee and on all those who fear the Lord and seek his truth Most beloved A. concerning what thou didst write to me about that dispute held at Franckfort betwixt Velsius and Calvin my opinion is That Velsius did stumble therein whilst he attributed too much to the power of man for humane power is judged and condemned by the Lord if it be before a man is made partaker of the divine birth because what is new born is of God and not of man it is eternal and immortal even as he is who begat it But on the contrary Calvin failed in that point wherein he rejected all the powers of man universally which indeed I allow to be true unless that I also judge that that knowledge

death that is knowable to the humane wisdom And because a● to their own strength in which they live they dye not in body and soul being wholly condemned before God henc● it is that they usurp to themselves as thei● propriety that intellect of God that is that they themselves might by the benefit of that thing conserve life which properly ought to be the condemning sentence and the death of their ipseity For if the Truth of God should enter into them in by a certain essential state it would be impossible that a man could endure one spark thereof without being melted quite down Therefore we must dye not only as to our wisdom in the highest degree but as to our own proper Salvation that God alone may be our Wisdom life and Salvation This done our ipseity is condemned before God and thrust down into a death according to the flesh which is as it were essential whence nothing can again bud forth either in respect of God or of the Creature so that whatsoever had bin ours ought to be altogether made subject to its death judgment and sentence of condemnation That same small last Chapter is contrary to that writing inasmuch as it determineth that sometime calm seasons may be gained even according to the flesh for so I transfer it even as the writing its self speaketh so as they then may esteem themselves pure because they who are purified know how to apply all things to a true use Which I also affirm but in its own meaning but that at which this writing aimeth is contrary to my mind for the liberty of Christ belongs to the inward man and doth only affect the mind unto eternal salvation in Divine Truth but the flesh is condemned and suppressed and bound down into death so as that no man can then rightly use the Creatures of God but with grief and misery because that in all these a man may behold his own death in which formerly he had thought to have found life and yet with these very things he is well contented acknowledging this divine judgment for truth and so remains yielded up into death But the Inward man is then conversant in eternal joy being signed or sealed by the Spirit of God I have wrote this in haste that I might satisfie thy desire according to the testimony of my mind The Lord have mercy on them on us all and pluck us quickly out of our errors Alas who am I a miserable wretch who thus writeth I beg Grace of the Lord for without his Grace I shall never be advanced nor abide in him EPIST. XXIII A further consideration concerning the opinion of H. N. To his brother A. W. DEarest Brother thou maist read over this small Treatise and send it back again to me because I must treat something thereof with N. that I may oppose him somewhat about those things which he accounts for true for that which he makes his scope is not pleasing to me which they call the Intellect of God in which both heaven and earth are indeed locally moved and every creature vanisheth out of its condition or state and yet in the same mystery and inheritance they conclude nature to be left alive whereas notwithstanding Nature cannot in and by its life arrive at that pass but only and alone by the benefit of its death introduced into it by Christ our Lord and Saviour and that in so much verity that Nature appears no more with its own proper life but remains eternally cast off with the death and curse thereof But that Nature which thay call purged and dead to its reason in my opinion doth indeed only depend on principles of understanding and science but not on Truth it self for hitherto it hath not approached to the essence it self nor is united therewith for though Reason layeth aside its natural discretion that thereby it may be nearer to the divine intellect yet for all that the intellect is not yet then made one with the Essence but is rather contrary to it and as it were an enemy to Truth seeing that that spiritualized Nature hideth it self under the shew of intellect but not of essence and is in that still entertained Who shall deliver a man from these intricacies The Lord have mercy on us an● My Brother I therefore write thus that I may also discover to thee my opinion for that man is endowed with no sma●● understanding yet he is deeply seduced and is deeply wise but withal he is deeply to be disputed with The Lord keep us humble in the Truth that that which belongs to death may be also thrown off into death but let him reign and rule to all eternity EPIST. XXIV Being a brief argument that the foundation of the family of Love is laid and built upon carnal liberty To the same person I W. was here and hath utterly and cordially renounced the thing its self because he had experienced found from their presence that they were infected with the venome of carnal liberty and that all issued out of that fountain Also I restored to him the books if haply they might be willing to have them restored again to them he also was most fully satisfied admiring that so sublime an understanding was subject to errours for he confessed that my opinion was beyond all doubt true seeing that a man is always to be subjected to divine terrours But that such elevated spirits do fall into errours is from thence that they too much covet their proper security whence at length springs up boasting and pride and then after that a fall The Lord preserve us all from evil according to his great mercy that seeing it is of grace that we are saved so also in grace are we conserved and not thorough our own selves EPIST. XXV Concerning the Opinion of Plato To the same person MY brother I send thee back the little book concerning Plato which when I had read I found just so as thou writest For the falling of these who call themselves the family of Love is subtile though in that small tract they are mightily defended all things being interpreted for the better yet the excuse relisheth not well with me except I should say that by their ultimate scope to which they think they shall come by the means of Love their wisdom is shameful as in them so also in us yet with this distinction for what in them is righteousness truth and wisdom must be to us unrighteousness falsness and foolishness if so be that glory to the Lord must spring up thorough us all which yet they are willing to reserve and ascribe to themselves as also did the Jews though in a more excellent degree Now it behooveth a Christian to dye as to them both and by the Lord to be condemned to death viz. as to wisdom and righteousness Moreover may the Lord also freely bestow on us his grace according to his most holy will EPIST. XXVI A Christian consideration concerning